Sat 7th October 2pm Leinster v Munster (Aviva Stadium)

[Experimental]

Delighted with the win, and the squad deserve a lot of praise. Having watched the interview with Reggie, I can only say that it was childish what Peter O'Mahony did and im sure he probably regrets it. Reggie was right to question Munsters intensity, its clearly not where it should be and Munster fans agree. The Jose style interviewing wont win him any friends, not even in Munster. Although Im overjoyed from a Leinster perspective, I'm worried from an Ireland one. Was pretty shocked at how anonymous the munster back row were going forward, but only highlights the dominance of our pack (which is formidable at full strength). JVDF and Sexton were outstanding and Byrne did really well apart from the defensive mistakes. O'Loughlin is a winger, please play him on the wing. Earls was the pick of the backs, so Munster fans have at least one shining light to hold on to

[blockhead]

Delighted with the win, and the squad deserve a lot of praise. Having watched the interview with Reggie, I can only say that it was childish what Peter O'Mahony did and im sure he probably regrets it. Reggie was right to question Munsters intensity, its clearly not where it should be and Munster fans agree. The Jose style interviewing wont win him any friends, not even in Munster. Although Im overjoyed from a Leinster perspective, I'm worried from an Ireland one. Was pretty shocked at how anonymous the munster back row were going forward, but only highlights the dominance of our pack (which is formidable at full strength). JVDF and Sexton were outstanding and Byrne did really well apart from the defensive mistakes. O'Loughlin is a winger, please play him on the wing. Earls was the pick of the backs, so Munster fans have at least one shining light to hold on to

Bit early to be writing off CJ. He's a shoe in for 8 in the AIs in the absense of Jamie. POM is a different matter, so many to choose from. Earls still the best winger in the country, a very positive player when his confidence is up, and it will be now after that game.
How long is Zebo out for? I thought he just missed the game because he was over in France looking at properties.
Munster don't have a settled 10 and a lot of the onus will be on Murray, which he can handle (talkin bout the heino here).

[Experimental]

Personally I dont think Stander is doing enough at teh moment to warrant a shoe in at 8, If I were to guess the pecking order for Ireland at the moment I would say that its O'Brien at 8 with VDF and J Murphy on the flanks.

[molloyjh]

Personally I think Stander is overrated.

Gasp. Shock. Horror.

The guy is very good at what he does and I have great time for him. But what he does is limited. How many times has he bossed a game against a strong Leinster selection? And how many times has he been anonymous? He can be nullified. I'd rather see POM at 6, SOB or VDF at 7 and Conan at 8.

[paddyor]

Furlong, McGrath, POM and Stander were all fairly anonymous yesterday. Maybe it might have something to do with this essentially being their pre season.

I thought Furlong played quite well. He was only on the pitch for 50 minutes. I'll never get tired of seeing him linking play with the backs, maybe my view is coloured by that. But 5 passes, 9 carries, 4 carries and a few scrums and lineouts, that's a good shift in 50 minutes. Thats busy to me.

[paddyor]

The difference is Munster are trying to play a more expansive game even if they're making mistakes. An interesting stat from yesterday was Munster made twice the running meters than Leinster. They made 17 offloads to leinster's 6 (if I remember correctly). I'm happy enough with how the season is going.


For some reason Leinster are just trucking it up all season and looking to use forward power to score tries. It's not like the talent to play more expansively isn't there.

It kind of is though. We've been missing our first choice 10 12 and 13 for most of the season and then missing our 2nd/3rd choice 12 for parts of the season. Yesterday was the first day Sexton and Henshaw played together this season.

[COYBIB]

Your banging on about reliance on outside players is tiresome and misguided. Change the record.

Minster scored 3 tries not 2.

Munster finished higher than you in every competition last year. So rather better than you and shaggys opinion.

"Du Transishun" we keep hearing about for a decade now will be over any day and Munster will somehow produce a host of international quality players out of nowhere and rise from the ashes, right? Best of luck with that, I wonder which of us would bite the hand off the other to trade places on future fortunes.

[molloyjh]

Again, we performed better than you in every competition last year. If we are in the ashes then I'm not sure what you're saying about your own club.

We both went out of Europe at the same stage and lost out to the same team in the league. There was a grand total of 1 point between us in the final league table too. The difference between our seasons was negligible at best. No amount of petty score keeping changes that.

[Dave Cahill]

In fairness, your embarrassment is understandable - even DOC admitted he was embarrassed about how he behaved during those years.


Anyways, onto the game. Leinster were pretty mediocre coughing up two almost entirely self inflicted tries - you can get away with that against the likes of Munster, but if we play like that against a good team we'll be in trouble. The individual units were good though, its really a matter of stitching it all together - the front five, back row, half backs, centres all played well in and of themselves. The back three is interesting, they did lots of really good stuff. I was really worried that Daly would be targeted like he was in TP last season but he wasn't and he did what he had to do well. Carbery is really growing into the number 15 shirt, he is much better in the air than he used to be and his defense was really good - for the first Earls try he read it correctly but was let down by...
I thought Adam Byrne had a really good game, he gave us a great option anytime we were getting bogged down by Munsters line speed in defense, but his defense was poor. Not the physical stuff, but the decisions he made, like the Earls try above

[olaf the fat]

Strange enough game.
We were rusty, against a poor Munster team and coughing up two soft enough trys, although TOD was very good for that one. Our combinations were just a little off. Joey Carbery was very effective, A Byrne also and sexton back to game fittness/form. Great to see the pack boss Munster so easily.

Was this game enough to iron out the creases? We dominated, but still only got 2 trys and conceded 3 - We really have to start dominating on the score board.

The disappointing bit from Munster was their discipline. POM had an alright game - but shocking from a captaining point of view. After the ref talks to him on the number of team silly penalties, he pisses him off by playing silly games with his shoe laces- real negative impact.

Regarding POM above, I would have preferred if Reggie answered - "Yes Pete, I am - because they were cr@p today. Why so?"

[OTT]

Mind you COYBIB is representative of a nasty type of fan we all have to put up with. Munster have plenty of them too and I cringe every time I talk to them.

He is a representative of a tiny minority of people who jump to extremes. It is not limited to Munster either, a lot of his diatribe on this site is actually saved for Leinster. Only a couple of weeks ago he wanted rid of half the playing roster after the Cheetahs match. We win by 30 we are the best in the world, we lose a game the world is over. Neither are ever true. Posters of that ilk help to keep the rest of us grounded.

Both sides have a massive amount of room to improve and they can, can they do it by next week? I hope so but it wont be easy.

[fourthirtythree]

In fairness, your embarrassment is understandable - even DOC admitted he was embarrassed about how he behaved during those years.

I followed a link to a video of he and Stringer talking about the "japes" he got up to, Many of which involved "cupping" gentlemen whether they consented or not.

It was deeply creepy and unsettling watching. Particularly given O'Callaghan's somewhat unorthodox appearance. One of those "hiding in plain sight" moments.

[Dave Cahill]

I wrote a poem for Donnacha.

He loves the bantz
more than his red pants.
Does putting a lobster on a lead
fill the emptiness inside?
As the days draw down and real life intrudes,
will he ever be able
to allow himself be open
without his buckler of banter?


I thank you.

[curates_egg]

Anyone notice POM's off-the-feet, swinging-arm-at-the-head clear-out of Carbery in the first half, after a carry by Conway (I think). 100% yellow card; not enough for a citing I think.
They were lucky not to have more people in the bin. That and Farrel are two examples I can think of.

[simonokeeffe]

Anyone notice POM's off-the-feet, swinging-arm-at-the-head clear-out of Carbery in the first half, after a carry by Conway (I think). 100% yellow card; not enough for a citing I think.
They were lucky not to have more people in the bin. That and Farrel are two examples I can think of.

Think we may have seen same twitter account upload it

[Laighin Break]

He was a petulant toddler both on and off the pitch. The shoelace tying and the post match interview would be elevated to international incidents if he did them at a test match. And yet his fanboys bizarrely suggest that they show that he should be Irish captain.

And there lies the source of the schadenfreude: the guys a really good player. Corrigan was never as good as him. He was selected to captain the Lions for a test match. But then he was dropped because the Lions lost the breakdown and he no longer operates effectively there. This led to massively improved performances by the Lions but it's always somebody else's fault when something goes wrong. Never his. A real captain would have diffused that and deflected it with some humble, positive mindset always improving bull. Or he would have been honest and brutal with himself and his team.

But then I grew up in times when the likes of Mourinho and Jaffa the Hut's petulant thin skinned public tantrums would not lead to high office. So maybe he's the captain Munster and Ireland deserve right now?

Have to say I'm surprised that anyone cares about the shoelace thing, a nothing incident.

Can't say I get the ire for his performance/reaction to the first test either. Having been dropped as Lions captain he should have come out and said he played poorly? Is that what you're saying? I can't remember him suggesting that his performance (which wasn't bad btw, just not good enough) was down to someone else, but if you're saying that his fans blamed other reasons then that has absolutely nothing to do with POM himself. Also saying "this led to a massively improved performed by the Lions" is a massive exaggeration. Was he the only change they made then?

I really don't get it. Some very reasonable posters on here seem to have it in for him and at times it's nothing short of disrespectful. Like I said, I don't care if people don't rate him, but the snide attitudes and delight in him not performing are bizarre IMO.

More likely regression to the mean

[arsebiscuits1]

Anyone notice POM's off-the-feet, swinging-arm-at-the-head clear-out of Carbery in the first half, after a carry by Conway (I think). 100% yellow card; not enough for a citing I think.
They were lucky not to have more people in the bin. That and Farrel are two examples I can think of.

Think we may have seen same twitter account upload it

Is this the one 3RK uploaded as a perfect example of Munsters passion?

[simonokeeffe]

Anyone notice POM's off-the-feet, swinging-arm-at-the-head clear-out of Carbery in the first half, after a carry by Conway (I think). 100% yellow card; not enough for a citing I think.
They were lucky not to have more people in the bin. That and Farrel are two examples I can think of.

Think we may have seen same twitter account upload it

Is this the one 3RK uploaded as a perfect example of Munsters passion?

yes
I feel its a bad example (of trying to prove players were up for it) but in general its an excellent account and generally very fair/level headed

even one he uploaded of a Farrell hit on Tracy was very close to a swinging arm

[riocard911]

Farrell seems to be a bit of flat-track bully alright. In the Ospreys match I though he should have been carded for a late hit on Sam Davis.

[BlueBlue]

He was a petulant toddler both on and off the pitch. The shoelace tying and the post match interview would be elevated to international incidents if he did them at a test match. And yet his fanboys bizarrely suggest that they show that he should be Irish captain.

And there lies the source of the schadenfreude: the guys a really good player. Corrigan was never as good as him. He was selected to captain the Lions for a test match. But then he was dropped because the Lions lost the breakdown and he no longer operates effectively there. This led to massively improved performances by the Lions but it's always somebody else's fault when something goes wrong. Never his. A real captain would have diffused that and deflected it with some humble, positive mindset always improving bull. Or he would have been honest and brutal with himself and his team.

But then I grew up in times when the likes of Mourinho and Jaffa the Hut's petulant thin skinned public tantrums would not lead to high office. So maybe he's the captain Munster and Ireland deserve right now?

+ Another.

I'm a fan of POM, but when I see the lad let himself down with that BS I'm going to call it what it is. Petulant brat stuff. Aside from that I hope POM does well and gets back to his best. He's a long way from it.

I thought Munster would have put up more of a fight if they wrote us a letter offering a walkover and a 4 to 1 division of points. They were shockingly poor.